A Bloodless Hunt for pine marten to be held over the weekend 21.05

This weekend, 21-23 May, the 8th Bloodless Hunt
photographic competition will be held in RMK’s Angus hunting district in
Lääne-Viru County, with a particular focus on the pine marten this time.

According to
Jaan Mitt, in charge of the Angus hunting district of the State Forest
Management Centre, each year the Bloodless Hunt focuses on a different forest
denizen, with this year’s “quarry” being the pine marten. “The forest
wilderness in the Angus area in Virumaa provides a perfectly suited habitat for
the pine marten, and the likelihood of coming across the quarry is high. The
animal has also just given birth to cubs. The pine marten is excellent for
exciting shooting, as it is an animal with a very mobile lifestyle – even the
proverb says that a pine marten will run up as many tracks in a night as a
saddle horse in an entire summer,” Mitt added.

In the course of
the wildlife photography competition held collaboratively by the MTÜ Vereta
Jaht (non-profit association Bloodless Hunt), the State Forest Management
Centre and the Estonian Museum of Natural History, Estonia’s best nature
photographers will be photographing animals, birds and insects. Normally,
people known for their penchant for photography or hunting enter the
competition. Nature shutterbugs will be assisted and guided by RMK’s
professional game wardens and local hunters.

The base camp
for this year’s Bloodless Hunt will be located at Tudu. Off the hunting trail,
chats will be given and thoughts exchanged by Hendrik Relve on Antarctica, Udo
Timm on the Siberian flying squirrel and Andrus Noorhani on various
photographing secrets.

From of the
nature photographs shot during the three days, each entrant will pick their ten
best. From these, the jury will select, in turn, the 50 most interesting
photographs, which will be on display at the autumn photography exhibition at
the EstonianMuseum of Natural History. At the same
time, the winning works will be announced.

The Bloodless
Hunt wildlife photography competition has been held since 1997. In previous
years, the quarry has included the roe buck, wild boar, beaver, roe deer, elk
(moose), bear, lynx, wolf, otter and wood grouse.